No reading gaps: province
Outcomes evaluated after COVID-19 reboot of English-language curriculum
Education leaders in P.E.I. say preliminary data has not found literacy learning gaps among Grade 3 students as a result of the 15-week spring 2020 closure of schools.
Following the pandemic-related closures, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning officials revised the province’s English-language curriculum to address possible learning gaps from the previous spring. Most programs from K-12 were altered in some way to ensure subjects that were to have been covered the previous spring were taught first in the fall of 2020.
P.E.I. was the only jurisdiction to revise its school curriculum on a provincewide basis.
By the end of spring 2021, a program evaluation was completed of the new curriculum. Tamara Hubley-Little, director of Wnglish education, programs and services for the Department of Education, said the evaluation examined outcomes in math and language arts in Grades 3, 6 and 9.
"We are still going through the process of analyzing that data,” Hubley Little said.
"Preliminary results indicate that we do not have any statistically significant difference in our reading and writing literacy achievement for Grade 3.”
Grade 3 is considered a key stage where children begin to learn through reading.
Hubley-Little said neither the details about mathematic achievements nor any results from Grades 6 and 9 are yet available. The writing and literacy scores for students in Grade 3 similar to provincial assessment levels from 2019.
“We're really pleased about that. Grade 3 is our most important key stage,” Hubley-Little said.
The program evaluation dataset was not shared with The Guardian.
The last provincewide assessment in 2019 showed 74 per cent of students were reading at grade level. Forty-nine per cent of these students were writing at grade level.
Hubley-Little said this spring’s program evaluation was not as comprehensive as a provincewide assessment. A sample size of close to 300 was drawn from 27 schools across P.E.I.
But Hubley-Little said there are currently no plans to publicly share the full data from the program evaluation.
Educators across Canada have expressed concern that school disruptions over the course of the first, second and third waves of the pandemic have left an entire generation of learners with a lost year in education.
One fall 2020 study examining the reading assessment scores of thousands of young students in Edmonton found that, on average, students were between six and eight months behind.
But pandemic disruptions varied widely from province to province.
P.E.I.’s 2020-2021 schoolyear experienced few disruptions while chaotic school interruptions in Ontario may have put students two to three months behind their peers elsewhere.
Still, some are concerned about the pandemic’s impact on P.E.I. students.
“It's good to hear that some preliminary results show no decrease in reading skills. But I'm concerned about the overall well-being of the students," said Opposition Green education critic Steve Howard.
Howard said he would like to see the department assess the specific learning gaps experienced by rural students who lacked adequate internet during last spring’s school closures.
Howard also said education decision-makers need to look at the positive and negative impacts of public health measures, such as the cohorting, on the mental health of students.
"We need the voices of the students to be at the forefront," Howard said.
"If we just look at curriculum outcomes, we're missing a big part of the story."
Liberal education critic Heath MacDonald also said an overall look at academic achievement obscures the barriers experienced by children from poorer households.
P.E.I.’s 2019 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results showed P.E.I. had some of the highest gaps in the country in educational outcomes between higher and lower income students.
"The pandemic really has exacerbated the social and economic inequalities. I think we have to be very aware of the disadvantaged students," MacDonald said.
"To say that it didn't affect us? I don't know if I'd be quite firm on that. Because those children that are disadvantaged are certainly going to be more affected than others.”
The province is planning to implement another revised curriculum during the 2021-2022 school year.
"We are calling it a transitional year,” Hubley-Little said.
“That's quite deliberate because some of the curriculum will continue in its revised format. Some of it will have additional outcomes added back in."
Hubley-Little will speak before the standing committee on education and economic growth on July 13 about plans for post-pandemic learning in P.E.I. schools.